dayoutlast is a record of my direct engagement with mostly contemporary art, mostly Los Angelean.

As this blog has evolved since its 2010 inception, so has my perspective. What I once perceived as central within the investigation was what was central, literally, within the photographic frame that I shared here. While still an important consideration, such thinking has also given way to more peripheral considerations, ones also accompanied occasionally by text (written manifestation of thought) and the oscillations between them. What's missing here are larger unknowns surrounding issues of presentation and representation; the amount of time and space it actually takes to accomplish such first-hand observations; and the quandaries between documentation and interpretation.

Despite my attempt to communicate here with image and text what is essential in some respect about the artwork, neither representation should ever be considered a substitution for the primary viewing experience. Of course, occasionally there are exceptions.

Most of the time, these posts are merely remnants---residual fragments---from my last day out.

Friday, April 3, 2015

Jon Pylypchuk "Feed Your Baby Valium" @ China Art Objects














Pylypchuk has often reminded us of the face as the focal point in art, his art. As it refers to expressive abstraction (late Pollocks, Morris Louis et al) later Billy Al Bengston and even still later (now, currently) Monique Van Genderen (see a post here from earlier today), I'm not sure the points other than to explore a certain control and facility of fluid material in order to accomplish a painting, one that must signify with both line and color as its raison d'être. In this regard, the works are hugely successful even if such fluid humors remain static in the end. 

As expressions, these paintings are a bit downer, two dark-ringed poles and a downward-arcing line which suggests either saddened eyes with a trembling frown or on another tack perhaps, two whirling celestial bodies hovering over a horizon. Whether or not one takes portrait or landscape in these largely indifferent canvases (all 78 inches square, all Untitled, 2015, all enamel and spray paint on canvas on panel), there are bright spots worth expanding upon. Note the internal light of each eyeball, each planet.  These sad, darkened rings with quivering lips/grounds, ultimately, suggest uncertainty, ambiguity, and disappointment, something valium can't really change in any long term way.  So, how do you really want me to feel about these? I can't decide.

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